Sense of Occasion
by Bohemian.Butterfly
Summary: Whatever happened to the letter Andy wrote Sharon before he went into surgery? Does he even still have it? This is another take on what happened to that letter and what becomes of it on a quiet evening in late December.


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or M/C, but if I did, this is what would happen.

A/N: This is another take on what happened to the letter Andy wrote to Sharon before he had his surgery. The idea was reblogged by sjwashere and originally inspired by an idea one of my new Tumblr followers, fu**yeahmyqueen, came up with. Her prompt was, "but what if Andy gives Sharon the letter he wrote before the surgery as one of her Christmas gifts." This is where I went with it.

 **Sense of Occasion**

It was Christmas Eve. Andy and Sharon had decided to have a quiet night in at Sharon's condo. Emily and Ricky had taken Rusty and his new boyfriend Gus out to dinner and the four of them were planning on going to see the latest Star Wars movie afterwards.

This gave Sharon the perfect opportunity to invite Andy over to her condo for dinner and to exchange gifts.

Sharon had made the two of them spaghetti and as they both finished eating, Andy grabbed Sharon's plate and headed towards the sink. He began filling one side of it with water as he squeezed a bit of soap into it.

"Andy, you don't have to do that. I can always take care of it later," said Sharon as she walked towards him.

"It's not a big deal, Sharon. Plus, you cooked this amazing meal for us. I'm not just gonna leave you here to clean everything up too. The least I can do is clean the dishes for you," Andy replied as he rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows before sticking his hands into the water.

"And this is one of the many reasons why you're the best boyfriend ever," said Sharon as she snaked her hands around Andy's stomach from behind as he continued doing the dishes.

"Are you trying to distract me?" Andy asked her.

"Maybe. Is it working?" Sharon asked as Andy set another dish in the rack to dry.

"Not really," Andy replied as he set two cups in the rack to dry.

"Well, maybe I'm doing it wrong. How about now?" Sharon asked as her hands slipped down lower to Andy's waist.

"Two can play this game, you know," Andy replied as he set the silverware in the rack to dry as well.

"What do you mean?" Sharon asked teasingly.

Suddenly, Andy turned around in Sharon's arms and quickly put his soapy hands on either side of her face before kissing her. She returned the kiss with equal intensity as they fell against the countertop.

When the need for air became apparent, they broke apart as Andy smiled at Sharon and said, "That's what I mean."

"Hmm…I'm starting to like this game," said Sharon.

"Me too," said Andy as his hands came to rest on Sharon's hips as he pulled her in for another kiss.

They stayed like that for a minute before Andy lifted Sharon up and set her on the counter.

"Well played," said Sharon as she leaned over and kissed Andy.

"I do my best," Andy murmured against Sharon's lips.

They stayed there for a few more minutes making out before Andy broke the kiss and said, "As much as I'm enjoying this, we should probably exchange gifts before we get too carried away and forget about it altogether."

"You have a point. Hold on," said Sharon as she hopped off the counter and made her way down the hall towards her bedroom to grab Andy's gift.

Sharon got about halfway there before she said, "I don't even have to turn around. I already know you're checking out my butt."

"I'm not even gonna try to deny that one. What can I say, you've got a nice butt," Andy replied as Sharon walked into her bedroom.

"I think this is the real reason you wanted to do this now," said Sharon as she walked back into the living room.

"What? So I could stare at your butt," Andy replied.

"Mmhmm," said Sharon as she kissed him briefly.

"I'm not gonna lie, it has its benefits," Andy replied as he reached behind Sharon and stuck his hands in the back pockets of her jeans and kissed her lips.

"You were the one going on about getting too carried away and forgetting to exchange gifts, and now look at you," said Sharon.

"I have a hard time keeping my hands off of you. It's increasingly becoming a problem," Andy replied.

"I don't know if it's necessarily a problem…" Sharon trailed off.

"You're mean, you know that," said Andy.

"What?" Sharon asked.

"You're just as bad about it as I am. Especially when it comes to flirting and making leading statements like that," Andy replied.

"Okay, I'll stop for now. Here, you can open yours first," said Sharon as she handed Andy a rectangular box wrapped in red wrapping paper with a green lettering print on it that said Merry Christmas.

As Andy unwrapped it, a very nice rectangular wooden box was revealed.

"Oh my god, Sharon. It's beautiful," said Andy.

"Open it. There's something else inside," said Sharon.

As Andy opened the box, he saw that there were a series of envelopes labeled, _Open when…_ and that each of the envelopes was labeled with a specific time or occasion in which Andy should open them.

"Just open the top one for now and then you can open the other ones when the front of the envelope says to," Sharon explained.

Andy took the top envelope out of the box and carefully opened it. Inside the envelope, he pulled out a picture of the two of them from the division's Christmas party last year.

Andy smiled widely as he looked at the photo and then at Sharon as he said, "Who knew that a year later, we'd end up here."

Sharon chuckled as she said, "Read the back."

On the back of the photo, Sharon had written:

 _Wow! What a difference a year makes. You, know, I remember thanking you for bringing all of that together, but I don't think I ever told you just how much it meant that you brought Christmas to me. When you opened the door to the break room and I saw that the Christmas village was set up and everybody was there, I felt this sense of joy that very nearly threatened to overwhelm me. Nobody had ever done anything like that for me before. I was truly touched that you took the time to hatch a plan with my son in order to bring Christmas to me since I would otherwise be missing it due to the case. Duty often calls us away from holidays and important events in our lives, but on that day, you went far beyond the call of duty and frankly beyond what many of my friends might be willing to do for me in this particular situation. That's how I first knew that the relationship between you and I was different. I tried to tell myself (and your daughter) that you and I were just friends. On that same night, Rusty called my bluff about you and I being "just friends," and it got me thinking. It wasn't until the night this picture was taken though, that I realized he was right. That you and I, "not dating" was all a lie and that maybe I wanted Nicole's "wrong idea" about you and I to be true too._

"And now I get to kiss the woman I was not dating and just friends with a year ago, like this," said Andy as he leaned over and passionately kissed Sharon for a minute.

He could feel Sharon smiling against his lips right before he broke the kiss.

"Sharon…this is the best Christmas gift ever," said Andy.

"I'm glad you like it. I plan on adding more envelopes to that stack in the future. Hence the box," said Sharon.

Andy smiled at Sharon before he said, "The box is beautiful. Where'd you get it from?"

"I actually had it made. There's this little shop down in Venice off of Abbot Kinney Boulevard where you can get stuff like this made," Sharon replied.

"Thank you. It's amazing," said Andy as he smiled at Sharon.

Andy set the box down on the coffee table as he reached over the side of the couch and grabbed the large gift bag containing Sharon's gift and handed it to her. Sharon began removing some of the tissue paper until she was able to grab whatever was inside. As she pulled it out, she realized it was a wooden shadow box with a letter from Andy inside of it. She sat it on her lap as she began to read it.

Andy's letter read:

 _Dear Sharon,_

 _I'll be going into surgery soon. I know just the thought of that scares you, even if you're trying your best to be strong for my sake. While I appreciate you trying to put on a brave face, I can see in your eyes that you're worried about me. If I could, I would do anything to take all of that fear and worry away from you. For you to not have to sit there for hours wondering what if and whether I'm alive or…well we're not gonna even think about the alternative because I have way too much to live for. Most of all, to say this: I love you._

 _I've wanted to tell you that I love you for quite a while now, but I was nervous that I might scare you off with an admission like that so early on in our relationship. Surgery or not, I want you to know that I love you. You being in my life is one of the best things that has ever happened to me, Sharon. This might sound kind of cheesy, but your presence in my life has been a ray of sunshine that I didn't even know I needed. Your smile can light up a room and every time I see it, I can't help but smile too. I also love how much you genuinely care about people and how you are always there to help whenever I need you. Whether it's a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on, or even just being there to offer advice about things along the way on this crazy journey we call life, you're always the first person I think of._

 _Most of all though, I love you, Sharon Raydor, and I want to survive this surgery so that I can spend the next however many years I'm given showing you just how much I love you and just how dear to me you are._

 _I love you,_

 _Andy_

As Sharon finished reading the letter, she looked up at Andy as her eyes began to well up with tears and said, "You love me."

"In so many ways, that I've lost count," Andy replied.

"Good. Cause I was beginning to think that I'd gone off the deep end, because guess what?" Sharon asked.

"What?" Andy asked.

"I love you, too. I've wanted to tell you that since your surgery. Right before they took you to surgery, I think you were trying to tell me that you love me, but I stopped you. I'm still not sure why. Maybe I was scared. I don't know. Instead, I told you I'd wait for you, and then they got ready to wheel you out of the room. I walked out and I almost started crying. I was already questioning whether stopping you from saying I love you had been the right decision or not. Right before they brought you out into the hallway, Hobbs showed up to let me know how the case we'd just wrapped up had turned out. I honestly heard maybe half of what she was saying and once they wheeled you past me, I'm sure it was apparent that I was no longer listening or concerned about the case. I was too busy wondering why I'd stopped you from saying it. Once your bed rounded that corner and you were about to be out of sight, I knew I'd been wrong to stop you, because at that moment, I realized that I loved you too. After your surgery, I was so focused on making sure you got well, that I figured the moment would happen again when the time was right. Apparently that time was tonight," said Sharon as she smiled at Andy.

"It makes sense, you know," said Andy.

What?" Sharon asked.

"That we would say I love you to each other for the first time on Christmas Eve. Sense of occasion and all," Andy replied.

Sharon laughed at that before she said, "I love you, Andy."

"I love you too, Sharon," said Andy as he captured her lips in a passionate kiss.

Yes, they definitely both had a sense of occasion. Hers came naturally, but it was slowly starting to rub off on him too. Andy really couldn't have asked for anything more. Having the woman he loved in his arms was the best gift he could've asked for and he knew Sharon felt the same way. This was definitely the best Christmas present of all.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this story! As always, let me know what you thought of it by leaving me a review! Thanks for reading!


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